One in 20 doctors could face investigation by the government’s new network of responsible officers in the first two years of the system, it has been revealed.
Department of Health predictions show it is anticipating a 20% increase in the number of GPs referred to their employer by the new army of investigators.
It suggests this will lead to an additional 208 doctors being subject to remediation, with the percentage of overall cases resolved with some form of remediation increasing by 75%.
But the documents also reveal that the £200,000-a-year responsible officers - almost all likely to be trusts’ clinical directors - will get a maximum of just two days training to take on the job of deciding GPs’ careers.
The DoH suggests the introduction of responsible officers, a key part of revalidation, will lead to a 37.5% reduction in the proportion of cases referred to the GMC, with 67 fewer cases sent to the Council.
But although the DH impact assessment estimates an overall drop of 15% in the number of cases being formally investigated, it suggests that earlier and improved detection of cases will see 20% more GPs being referred to their employer - an additional 378 cases per year.
Read more at Pulse.
Tags: Responsible officers
